HP goes to the Penguins
By Ian
Thought this was an interesting announcement from HP: first notebook with Linux installed.
Apart from issues about usability, I've found no one who doesn't seem to think that Linux is a better operating system in terms of flexibility and reliability. Which is why I've always been interested in why it wasn't a bigger seller. One of the usual answers would be path dependence, arguing along the lines of the story heard in most econ classes: the QWERTY keyboard versus, say, the Dvorak one. The Dvorak configuration has been shown to be more efficient, plus, it's not that hard to switch our current keyboards into that configuration. So why do we persist with inferior solutions? Are people just sort of lazy and/or dumb? (I tend not to think so, but this is often the tone I hear in economists voices when they talk about the fact that people don't regularly conform to models of rationality.)
In Microsoft, issues of (possible) path dependence have gotten big enough to warrant investigations about predatory practices and monoplist behavior. Everyone uses it because, well, everyone uses it. We've settled on an equilibrium that tends to reinforce itself, since the cost of getting out is view to be higher than the benefits gained from the move. And the more people settle into it, the harder it becomes to get out. But, is there really any good reason to stick with Microsoft, other than that fact that it's simply everywhere? If not, should we expect to see increasing migration away from Microsoft as its market share decreases since ubiquity, then, was the real strength?
Comments